About Enigma Museum

Enigma Museum is a for-profit company devoted to locating, restoring, preserving, and trading German Enigma machines as well as antique cipher, telegraph, scientific, and communications devices. The company maintains on-line museums as well as ongoing collecting, restoration, sales, and brokering services. Enigma Museum provides consulting services, authentic cipher technology, and props to museums as well as movie and television companies. The company and virtual museum were founded by Dr. Thomas Perera in 1987.

For more than 60 years, Dr. Perera has been collecting, restoring, and preserving antique scientific cipher and telegraph instruments. As a professor of neuroscience at Columbia University, Barnard College, and Montclair State College, Dr. Perera was involved in teaching and research on the electrical coding strategies in the brain. Upon retirement after 35 years of university teaching, Dr. Perera intensified his research into the history, technology, and deciphering of Enigma cipher machines. He makes frequent trips abroad to locate, document, and retrieve Enigma machines and to record the oral histories of Enigma operators. Dr. Perera has established a network of Enigma historians and collectors who share information as new discoveries are made.

In addition to maintaining EnigmaMuseum.com, Dr. Perera has written the only definitive book on the inner workings of the Enigma and other cipher machines. With 500 photographs, the book explains and shows the secrets of the Enigma. Enigma Book

He has also created an entire Enigma library on a CD-Rom, listing history, books, videos, simulators, and a great deal of information as indicated by its 60-item table of contents. Enigma CD

Dr. Perera gives frequent lectures and demonstrations of the Enigma and other cipher machines and instruments. He chairs the annual Enigma Forum at the Friedrichshafen Ham Radio conference in Friedrichshafen, Germany, in late June. He also maintains a telegraph and scientific instrument museum at Telegraph Museum.

A seasoned SCUBA diver, Dr. Perera has been involved with dives resulting in the underwater discovery and recovery of various artifacts including an Enigma machine that had been intentionally discarded by retreating German forces in World War II as well as segments of the original undersea telegraph cable from the United States to Cuba.

A recent article by Dr. Perera regarding Enigma machines as early laptop computers.

It is with saddened hearts that we must report that David Hamer passed away in 2017. He was an extremely talented historian who was always enthusiastic about supporting others with his knowledge and insight into the field of cryptology. His work, supportive input, and collaboration with us spans many years. He will be missed.

Dr. David Hamer was born in the United Kingdom and educated there and in the United States as a physical chemist but has spent the greater part of his career away from the sciences. His interests are broadly mathematical and include classical cryptology, particularly the German Enigma and other World War II cipher systems. He lectures extensively on the technological history of cryptology, is the author of a number of articles on Enigma and other cipher machines, and has made television appearances – most recently on BBC’s Newsnight and on the National Geographic channel, broadcast in both the UK and USA.

David is associated with the National Security Agency’s National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, MD, as a member of the Executive Committee of the NCM Foundation, Vice Chairman of the Acquisitions Committee and the Foundation’s UK Liaison Officer. In 2013 he was presented with the NSA’s Commemorative Service Medal by that agency’s deputy director, Mr. John C. ‘Chris’ Inglis. David is also an active member of the Crypto Simulation Group, a member of the editorial board of the academic journal Cryptologia and an associate editor of the UK-published Eye Spy magazine. In 2000 David was appointed Visiting Research Scholar by the Bletchley Park Trust, custodians of the cryptologic museum at Bletchley Park in the UK. In 2007 he was honored with the Freedom of Bletchley Park Award. Since 2002 he has been part of the organizing team for the Conflict series of historical conferences held annually at Christ Church, Oxford.

David saw military service with the Royal Air Force in an intelligence role.

Dan PereraDirector / Technical Adviser

Dan Perera, Director

Whether crawling through the bomb-damaged German fortifications at Normandy in the 1970’s or inspecting military armored vehicles and equipment at museums in the U.S. and Europe, Dan has always had an interest in WWII history and technology. With a skill set that developed with the dissection and maintenance of early personal computers, Dan manages the restoration, repair, and sales of Enigma machines for Enigma Museum. Dan also works with collectors and institutions who are seeking repairs for their cipher equipment or need assistance finding buyers for antiques no longer needed in their collections. In 2013, Dan appeared on the Discovery Channel’s TV show Pawn Stars with one of Enigma Museum’s 3-rotor Enigma machines. Dan has an MBA from Babson College in Wellesley, MA, and experience in finance, customer service, business management, and marketing.

Klaus Kopacz, Director of European Operations

In his role as Director of European Operations for Enigma Museum, Klaus Kopacz acts as an interface between our museum and the European community.

He has spent over 25 years researching the technology and history of the Enigma and other cipher machines. He has developed extensive contacts among European historians, museums, collectors and universities and gives lectures and demonstrations and provides technical support for many of them.

Since he is one of the very few people in the world who has studied the inner workings of Enigmas and other important cipher machines and learned the technical skills to restore them to working condition, he can help people to locate, maintain, and find parts for their machines. He has studied electrical engineering, computer science and machining technology and he is the only person to ever build a series of exact, complete and fully working replica Enigma cipher machines.